Trewstar Corporate Board Services

Tiny Houses, Tiny Weddings, Big Impact

January 12, 2021

Dear Friends of Trewstar,

I am infatuated with tiny houses. I read tiny house books and follow three tiny house accounts on Instagram. Perhaps this is my escape from the chaos of a large house enjoyed by a large family. This obsession is no secret, and for Christmas my children gave me two more tiny house books (no bathrobe for me!), one of which is called Cabin Porn. Maybe indulging your mom’s fantasies is even better than putting dishes in the dishwasher. 
 
Back in the real world, our big house has served us well this year, as all of our five children have come home to live with us for full- and part-time stints – and two of our sons were married in our backyard. You can only have tiny weddings during Covid, which has led me to contemplate writing my own book: Tiny Wedding Porn. 
 
Tiny weddings are great. When there are fewer than 20 attendees, not only do you know all of the guests, but you can talk with every one of them. Our two tiny weddings were different, each reflecting the particular young couple, but the end was the same – a happily married bride and groom who can now get on with building their lives together.
 
Meanwhile, at Trewstar, we are not doing tiny. We added two new team members last summer and two more this week. Our pipeline of active assignments exceeds that of the same time period in 2020. Maybe it is scheduled retirements, social pressure, skill set needs – whatever the reason, corporate boards have expanded their aperture and are actively seeking diverse members. In 2019, all of our assignments included a gender mandate, but no declared racial focus. By contrast, in 2020, 70% of our assignments included an explicit request for racial diversity.
 
With our expanded focus, we have nonetheless maintained our unparalleled track record of success and superior execution. While we miss our face-to-face meetings, it turns out that Covid has increased everyone’s availability. This has enabled us to not skip a beat, to complete many assignments in less than our average time of four months, to continue to grow our business over the summer months (as people postponed their vacations), and to close the year with a bang.
 
None of this would have been possible without you, our friends and supporters. For that we thank you. 
 
We hope that you are all staying healthy and have found some serenity during this unusual time in our lives.
 
Happy 2021!

All our best,
Beth Stewart & the Trewstar team


Founder and CEO
Trewstar Corporate Board Services
trewstar.com